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Wood-based value-chains as solutions to promote carbon neutrality and sustainable urbanization (WOODURBAN)

WOODURBAN

Construction and usage of buildings (CUB) is one of the most influential areas to enhance sustainable development in relation to bioeconomy and circular economy. Industrial multi-storey wooden building (MSWB) has been introduced as a solution to achieve multiple life-cycle (i.e., raw material extraction, primary and secondary processing of building materials, construction processes, usage of buildings, recycling, demolition) sustainability benefits in CUB.

Abreast with sustainability benefits, integration of wood-based value-chains in building processes has also been seen as pathway to increase efficiency and value-creation in CUB and to detach from traditional building practices (e.g., concrete usage, on-site building, product-orientation and by-passing end-user needs). The decisions on the built environment are strongly interlinked with urbanization and due to that, CUB is not only an environmental issue, but fundamentally concerns socio-cultural and economic aspects of building and housing. Thus, abreast with public authorities and businesses, citizen-consumers are key actors defining the acceptability and driving market demand of MSWB.

At the moment holistic understanding on synergies and trade-offs between technological, environmental, social and economic (i.e., multi-dimensional) life-cycle sustainability impacts of using wood in CUB is lacking. In addition, there is no comprehension on what types of multi-dimensional life-cycle sustainability benefits would add motivations of actors (e.g., public authorities, businesses, end-users) to uptake or purchase new wood-based CUB solutions. Finally, despite the crucial importance of citizen-consumers as end-users defining the acceptability and desirability of MSWB, their perceptions on multi-dimensional sustainability of wood in relation to their broader housing values and choices of homes.

The overall objective of WOODURBAN is to add knowledge on the potential of MSWB to enhance sustainable urbanization through better understanding of actor roles and preferences on building and housing. The information can be used for developing entirely new business models for companies operating in the bio-based circular economy.